Amended Turkish constitution: new hopes and fears - COMMENT - VIDEO

Baku. 17 April. REPORT.AZ/ Turkey's constitutional reform has ended yesterday. As usual, this political process is observed in Azerbaijan and world with a great interest. Those who love Turkey and those who do not express different attitudes before and after the referendum and no doubt will be.

The vast majority of citizens of Azerbaijan loves Turkey, they want it to be strong. For that reason, assessment of results in this regard would be more appropriate.

We assess last referendum in terms of strong and democratic Turkey.Because strong Turkey means strong Azerbaijan.President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev became the first head of state who congratulated his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first and that is evidence of it.

Moreover, strong and democratic Turkey can contribute to the development of democracy, stability and security in the region.

Thus, let us recall some of the statistical indicators on referendum. Current constitution was adopted after a military coup on October 18, 1982.

According to information, 49 million 798 thousand 920 people, or 85 % of the voters out of 58 million 365 thousand 78 voters participated in referendum.

The "yes" vote stood at 51. 41 per cent, while the "no" vote was 48.59 per cent.

17 regions that have status of city, including Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Mersin, Adana and Antalya, the country's 33 provinces out of 81 said “no” to amendments.

In other words, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost 9 regions in which it gained a victory during parliamentary elections

According to official results of the 26th Convocation of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, 48 million 537 thousand 695 people out of 56 million 949 thousand 9 or 85.23 % of the voters participated in the elections.

According to information, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) received 49.6 % of votes (317 seats in parliament), Republican People's Party (CHP) received 25,22 % (134 sits), The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 11,7% (40 sits), Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) 10,86 % (59 sits including independent MPs).

By the way, the same year on June 7 parliamentary elections, AKP 40.87 percent (258 seats), CHP 24.95 percent (132 seats), the MHP 16.29 percent (80 seats), HDPE 13.12 percent (80) votes

Because the coalition government not established, the parliament was dissolved.

Most of the voters from 6 provinces (Ankara, Artvin, Bilecik, Usak, Zonguldak and Yalova), voted against the change most of the voters in a referendum voted against the change. However, those provinces during the presidential election on August 10, 2014 voted in favor of current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Notably, 51.74% of 41 million 026 thousand voters took part in that political campaign.

Referendum on a constitutional amendments held 7 times in the history of Turkey including the latter one. 6 political campaigns ended with "yes" result while one with "no". Only on 25 September 1988, 65 % of voters in the popular vote said "no" and 35 % said "yes". The referendum was on holding local elections a year early. Referendum on April 16 was third during the rule of the AKP. The first such campaign held on October 21, 2007 (election of the president by popular vote), the second was held on 12 September 2010 (26-point change, for membership in the European Union). During the last popular vote 18-point change in the constitution was accepted. According to the results of the referendum the last referendum the office of the Prime Minister will be abolished and the existing parliamentary system of government would be replaced with an executive presidency and a presidential system.

In 2001, then-President Ahmet Necdet Sezer also attempted to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments, but he could not achieve it.

Erdoğan evaluating the election results has said: "For the first time in the history we are changing the management system by completely civilized politics. Therefore, it is very, very important”.

The Leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu spoke about human rights violations in the referendum and said: We respect the decision of nation but High Electoral Board casted shadow upon results”.

PresidentofSupreme Election Boardof Turkey Sadi Güven said after examining protests the final results of the referendum will be announced in 11-12 days.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Commissionerfor EuropeanNeighbourhood Policyand Enlargement NegotiationsJohannes Hahn issued a statement on the results of the referendum: “Constitutional changes, especially its practical implementation and Turkey's obligations as EU candidate country as well as member of the Council of Europe will be assessed”.

Thus, referendum was held in Turkey and the final results will be announced by the end of April. This political campaign was held in an atmosphere of tense situation in the country and the region. Attempts to cause events similar to destroyed and scattered Syria and Iraq in Turkey is not yet completed.

In other words, the internal referendum was held on the background of fight against Fətullahcı Terrorist Organization (FETO), a terrorist group PKK and its supporters, ISIS.

Turkey's position is as follows: territorial integrity must be protected, the safety of the country's population must be ensured, democratic reforms must be carried out, social problems must be resolved,economic development must be provided, the fight against terrorism should be carried out as part of the international coalition, more than 3 million refugees who took refuge in the country should be helped, international commitments must be complied, disintegration of society must be prevented, solidarity in the country must be protected, irrelevant allegations of neighboring states must be responded, safety of international oil and natural gas transport projects must be ensured, targets in international arena should be met.

As seen from enumerated above, Turkey as a leader in the region, that wants to take its appropriate place in world's political scene has a lot to do in future. It is stated that all of that works will be carried out by democratically elected government. No doubt, all such political campaigns contribute to the development of democracy in the country. Turkey shows to friends and enemies the possibility of carrying out reforms unarmed and without military coup.

The referendum also proves that public is not indifferent to the fate of country. However, it is not excluded that in the future pressure and threats on Turkey will increase. Such pressures held before the referendum. However, it is possible that those forces were also waiting for the referendum.

Finally, there are three cautious forecasts after the referendum in Turkey: violation of unitarity in country, emergence of cult of personality and formation of dictatorship.